


Sailor Makoto!

by Lady_Ifrit



Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Fantasy, Gen, Genderbend, Humour, Sailor Moon AU, slightly cracky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2014-03-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ifrit/pseuds/Lady_Ifrit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the cats Makoto runs into during his morning runs turns out to be not-so-normal after all and he ends up stumbling face first into the crazy world of magical girls and fighting evil by moonlight...<br/>Written for the Free! kinkmeme</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Free! Kink Meme  
> Prompt: Sailor Makoto - Genderbend  
> One of the cats Makoto runs into during his morning runs turns out to be not-so-normal after all and he ends up stumbling face first into the crazy world of magical girls and fighting evil by moonlight...
> 
> Unfortunately (or fortunately) for him, the transformation he goes through to fight evil isn't purely cosmetic. Makoto actually gets turned into a girl when he assumes his evil-fighting persona!

It was a normal day. The most normal of days, really...for the most part. 

He’d woken up in the morning, same as normal. Gotten ready and went out to meet Haruka, and drag him out of the bath if necessary, same as normal. On his way up the stairs, he’d stopped to play with the little white cat (a girl he’d named Yuki in his head even if it was unimaginative) same as normal. Although, she’d had a friend with her that day – a slightly bigger black cat with a funny mark on her head that had sat primly by the playful white kitten and looked at him contemplatively with piercing green eyes. It had been slightly unnerving, enough to make Makoto think again about petting her. She looked like she might scratch him and probably wasn’t used to being touched by people. 

Shaking his head to put it out of his mind, he’d carried on up the stairs to get Haru so they could be on their way to school. Haru had managed to get himself out of the bath and was plating up his mackerel when he got there, which was not unusual for a good day nowadays, since the mess with Rin had been solved, so it was sort of the same as normal. They walked to school, again as normal, though Makoto thought he saw a flash of black in the corner of his eyes now and then. Was that cat following him? But when he’d turn his head, there’d be nothing. 

His day at school itself had been fairly middle of the road – a test in English that he’d studied hard for the previous night and barely passed (but a pass was a pass and he’d take what wins he could), but also a essay he’d written the previous week for Japanese Language returned to him with glowing comments and high marks. Though he could have sworn he’d seen that black cat, sitting in a tree and staring at him, when he’d looked out the window in the middle of a lesson. He’d looked at Haru to see if he’d noticed, but Haru had been busy doodling something in the margin of his notes at the time. When Makoto had nudged him so he could point it out, the cat was nowhere to be seen and Haru had raised his eyebrow at him in concern. 

When they sat out on the roof for lunch, he could swear he’d seen those green eyes peering down at him from the roof over the stairs. It had started to freak him out a little, and no one else seemed to notice the cat, so he tried to carry on as normal. Though it meant he’d been distracted and twitchy at lunch and the others had looked at him in concern. 

His lessons after lunch had been difficult and engrossing enough that there was no time to look out of the window because he had to be paying attention. A practical in Chemistry and then another in Physics where they’d had to work with lasers, so the windows had been shut and covered to make the room as dark as possible. By the time school had ended and it was time for swimming practice, he’d put the cat out of his mind. 

But that hadn’t lasted long either – there it was again, on the other side of the fence from the swimming pool, looking at him. His times were off and Gou was added to the list of people giving him looks of concern. She hadn’t said anything too harsh though, letting him off with a, “I hope you’re back to normal tomorrow, Makoto-senpai.”

The walk home from school was much the same as the walk to school in the morning, except Makoto became slightly more aware of the flashes of black in the corner of his eye. He tried not to be too obvious about turning his head to try and catch the cat because Haru was with him, but it was making him twitchy. But even if Haru hadn’t noticed the cat, he could see that something was up with Makoto, plain as day. When they stopped at his house, at the top of the stairs, Haru tugged him inside, sat him down in the kitchen and said, bluntly, 

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been acting weird all day.”

“Uh...” Makoto couldn’t help but feel a little off guard at the question. I’m being followed by a cat. Even in his head that sounded stupid. Except that was exactly what came out of his mouth. It didn’t help that Haru’s eyebrows had risen into his hairline. He tried to explain himself further, but trailed off lamely, “It...It’s been watching me....”

Haru’s eyes flicked to the side, the way they usually did when Nagisa said something exceptionally absurd. “You should go to sleep. I think you were studying pretty hard last night.”

It was pretty tactful of him, really. Haru could be kind like that. Makoto found himself nodding as he rose to his feet, groping around for his bag only to realise he had never taken it off his back. Sleep was probably a good solution, then. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I’ll just go to sleep. Good idea, Haru-chan.”

He’d walked out, oblivious to Haru’s ‘drop the –chan’ and turned down the stairs to his house. Half way down, the bush beside him had rustled and he’d heard what he thought was a mew. Maybe it was the cat that had followed him the whole day...but maybe it was injured? After standing undecided for a moment, he’d taken out his phone and activated the light on it. He used it to peer into the darkness within the bush, only to be startled by a black shape jumping out at him, grabbing the phone right out of his hands and running off down the stairs. 

“Hey, wha-? W-wait! Give it back! I need that!” He’d taken off after the cat, thankful for his long legs making short work of the stairs and allowing him to somewhat keep up with the cat as it led him on a (not so) merry chase, past his house and off down the road at the bottom of the stairs. Though he couldn’t help the sneaking suspicion that it was allowing him to keep up – he’d read somewhere that a common housecat could easily outrun Usain Bolt, and Makoto wasn’t someone who could even be compared on anything near that level. 

When he finally stopped running, bent over and gasping for breath, the sun was low in the sky as the days were getting shorter. It turned out the cat had led him to his old elementary school, which Ren and Ran now went to and he’d had to climb over the gates to get inside. He was on the side of the school with the playground, around the corner from the entrance. There was no one else around but the two of them and the street lights were coming on. And there the little black devil was, sitting primly in the middle of the open space, his phone held in her mouth.  
Once he’d regained his breath, he advanced on her slowly, cautiously. He wasn’t sure he’d manage another run through the neighbourhood and if she bolted then, he’d have to give up on getting his phone back and tell his parents that he needed a new one. Just the thought of replacing all his contacts and photos was enough to make him cringe. 

“Okay. Okay. Good kitty, good kitty. Just give me my phone back and I’ll give you a treat, okay? I’ve got some really yummy nibbles in my bag that I usually give to Yuki and the others, but you have to give me my phone back first, okay? Who’s a good kitty?”

The cat moved back and he froze, not wanting to give her a reason to bolt. She dropped his phone on the ground in front of her and then started hacking. Makoto’s eyes widened in alarm – the cat was going to spit up a fur ball all over his phone! He’d looked around, unsure of what to do in such a situation. But instead the cat coughed up something shiny onto her paw and then proceeded to slap it onto the back of his phone. But that was nothing compared to what had happened next. 

She’d started talking to him. 

The cat. Was talking. To him. 

The cat. 

Was talking.

What the hell?

“Tachibana Makoto, I’ve finally found you.”

Was anyone else seeing this? Makoto couldn’t help but look around to see if some amazing ventriloquist was hiding in the bushes to play a trick on a poor, innocent high-schooler. Makoto didn’t think he knew anyone who would play a trick like this on him, bar Nagisa, but this wasn’t really Nagisa’s style. 

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Luna and I’ve been looking for you for quite a while now. You see, you are the chosen warrior. A force of darkness is moving in Iwatobi right now and you have been chosen, to use your powers and fight against it.”

Makoto had convinced himself at this point that even if there was no one there, there must be something playing a voice recording. He wasn’t sure how the pranksters had found out his name or why they’d targeted him in particular, but these sorts of pranks...well, he wasn’t very fond of them. He’d started turning around to look at the space and figure out where whoever it was could have hidden such a thing. 

“I have managed to gather information on my travels that may be of use to you in your mission. One of the agents of the dark force is going to make a move tonight, in this area. This will be your first fight – hey, listen to me! I’m trying to tell you some very important things!”

Makoto had started to wonder if there was a camera around somewhere for the pranksters to watch his reaction too. The cat had made a frustrated noise then and picked up his phone to run off again. Makoto had panicked, following the cat automatically. But this time it hadn’t gone far and stopped at a corner where the entrance to the school was visible, dropping the phone by its feet again.  
Makoto had darted forward to pick up his phone while the cat seemed distracted, but it used its paw to point at the gates. He couldn’t help but turn his gaze towards them. 

“Look over there, that man is breaking into the school! He is the agent I was telling you about.”

There had indeed been a darkly dressed, hooded figure climbing over the gates at that very moment. Makoto had wondered if it was one of the pranksters, if it was part of the prank or if it was an actual break in. If it was an actual break-in then the right thing to do was call the police. He’d said so out loud. 

“No, you can’t call the police. That man is not really a man, he is just disguised as such. He’s going to plant devices – ”

“Devices?! Like bombs?! Then I’m definitely calling the police! This isn’t something for a highschooler to handle!” He’d barely noticed he was talking back to the cat. 

“No! He’s going to plant devices that suck out a human’s life force. And children have much brighter life forces, which is why he has targeted the elementary school. We have to follow him.”

But Makoto had already been opening his phone to make the call and so the cat had leapt at him, taking the phone right out of his hands for the second time that day. It ran out further, making him follow and drew him right into the sight of the shady guy who had broken in. When the man turned and caught sight of him, Makoto could have sworn he heard him hiss. And his eyes seemed to be glowing under the hood. 

“You!” The voice that emerged from the figure wasn’t a human one. Makoto didn’t know how he would have described it if someone had asked.

Makoto froze. 

“My master has been looking for the chosen one who would fight him. He will reward me dearly if I get rid of you tonight!” 

The cat had thrown his phone at him then and Makoto had caught it out of the air automatically. Across from him the figure had seemed to be growing, the clothes shredding away to reveal a monstrous and definitely inhuman figure. The cat, Luna – that had seemed like a good time to believe every word that had come out of her mouth – shouted to him, 

“I’ve attached your transformative amulet to the back of your phone. Touch it, hold it aloft and shout: ‘Moon Prism Power!’”

And that was how Makoto found himself in the playground of his elementary school, about to face off with some kind of alien monster straight out of some kind of sci-fi movie, or his nightmares (could be either), with a talking cat for a sidekick. What was going on with his life?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Sailor Mako's first fight! And, well, it isn't so much a fight as it is him crying and running, but it wouldn't be Makoto otherwise, right?

“M-moon prism power?” 

Nothing happened. Both Makoto and the monster had frozen in expectation and there was an awkward moment where they looked at each in the absence of anything happening. Then the monster made a sound, suspiciously like laughter. How embarrassing. 

“No! You’re saying it like a question – you need to say it with conviction! Say it like you mean it! The power is within you Makoto – you need to call to it.” Luna was shouting at him from a safe distance away, sat on top of a climbing frame.

Okay, try again. He held his phone aloft and tried to say it with authority. “Moon Prism Power!”

Suddenly, he was engulfed in a blinding light, swirling around him. He lifted his hands, startled. For a moment, it was like the world stopped existing and he was the only person in the universe, just him and the light. His body was tingling and he could feel something happening, something changing even if he couldn’t see it. This must be the power Luna was talking about. 

When the light receded, he was left standing with his hands raised in front of him where he had lifted them to brace for whatever happened, in his surprise. 

“Huh?” 

The phone had changed – he was now holding some sort of wand or sceptre. Then he noticed his hands – he was wearing gloves now. And it felt kind of breezy down below. What – was he wearing a skirt? 

“Huuuuh?!”

It was a skirt, and a really short one at that. But looking down had made him notice something else. 

“HHUUUUUHH?!?!?!”

Breasts. Boobs. Those were – he had boobs. 

...And they were kind of big. 

“Well...this is different. Um...” Luna was looking at his transformation with a sheepish expression, head ducked low in the cat equivalent of a shrug. “Really, I have no idea...” 

The monster chose that moment to remind them of its presence, with screeching laughter. Makoto would have felt insulted, if there had been time, but in the next instance it was moving towards him, impossibly fast and Makoto had no time to think about the changes made by the transformation. Terrified, he turned to run and only made it a few steps before he fell, flat on his face, because the transformation had given him boots with heels. Luckily, falling had saved him from being cut open by a swipe of the monster’s large clawed hand. And the fact that the swipe hadn’t connected had thrown the creature off balance as well, giving Makoto enough time to crawl out from under on his hands and knees and put some distance between him and it.

“Use your sceptre! Point it at him and focus your power through it. You should be able to hurt him that way!”

Makoto turned back to the creature, fumbling with the odd weapon that his phone had become in his hand, feeling a little frantic with fear and wishing Haru was here for him to hide behind. This was terrifying!

“How do I focus my power?!”

“Try for the same feeling from your transformation!”

The fear was making it difficult to concentrate, but he tried, glad that at least the sensation was fresh in his mind, even though his hands were shaking. A weak beam of light shot out from the wand at the dark agent, glancing off its shoulder and though it did seem to hurt it, the attack wasn’t a critical one, only succeeding in making it stagger and blinding it for a moment.

“You have to put more power into it!” Luna shouted helpfully.

“I’m finding it a little hard to focus, Luna-san!” his voice had a slightly hysterical note to it.

Makoto scrambled to his feet and had another go at running by keeping his weight over the balls of his feet rather than doing a heel-to-toe transfer. Looking desperately for something he could hide behind, he made it to the middle of the playground and took shelter behind the slide. He drew his knees close to make himself smaller, but that made him aware of exactly how short the skirt was. His heart was pounding in his ears. He chanted to himself – focus your power, focus your power.

When he peered out from behind the slide, the monster was closer than he had thought. He screamed and pointed the wand at it with closed eyes. This time a slightly stronger beam of light fired out at it, fuelled by the panic surging through him and a wisp of smoke rose from where the beam had seared it, mitigated a little by the fact that the monster had braced. It roared in pain.

He scrambled out from under the structure, feeling slightly winded and made to run again, hearing the monster roar. A small pitter-patter by his side alerted him to Luna, keeping pace beside him and trying to impart more helpful advice. 

“You need to calm your mind. It’ll help you focus your power properly.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to do that right now, Luna-san.” His voice was wavering with fear. Being chased by a terrifying beast generally didn’t help generate calmness of mind. 

Makoto heard the monster screech followed by the sound of its thumping footsteps behind him. He saw a door up ahead and ran to it, but unsurprisingly, it was locked shut. The footsteps and screeching were getting closer, so he turned and fired at the shape he could see in the corner of his eye and further along the side of the school building until he found the metal stairs of the fire escape. The minute he made it to the first landing, he knew it was a stupid idea – he was doing that thing that happened in horror movies, where they ran up the stairs instead of out of the house – but fear made it hard to make sensible choices.

Then it became a deadly game where he would climb to the next landing and turn to fire – if he missed, the monster would leap up the stairs and slash through the metal with powerful claws, breaking off the stairs past that point so the only way for Makoto to run away was to keep going up. If he landed his shot, the monster would be pushed back, buying him a little more time and distance. As it chased him up, he could it hear it calling after him, taunting him with the ways it would kill him.

And even as Luna kept trying to suggest ways that he could try and calm his mind, techniques that would allow him to focus, Makoto thought he had found another way that worked for him. He was able to use his fear and panic to fuel the beams. He just needed some time to build it up in one go before he fired.

All too soon he found himself on the roof. The monster wasn’t that far behind him – he could hear it clanging on the metal behind him. There was nowhere else to run now. He positioned himself in the middle of the expanse and steadied himself, his heart thundering in his chest. He raised the wand, hands shaking and took aim. He had to do this on the next shot.

He counted down as he could hear the monster sneering. “You’re pathetic. I can’t believe Master ever thought there was a need to take precautions against you. After I kill you, I’ll plant my amulets all over the school and suck those children’s souls dry.”

And that was the boost he needed. The thought of Ren and Ran being harmed by whatever this thing planned to do – the fear was enough to make his heart explode. And that was exactly what the next beam of light to fire from his wand did to the monster – the searing power shot straight through the creature’s heart, blasting it off the roof and incinerating it completely in white heat. 

Makoto fell to his knees as the dying shriek faded into the night, exhausted. It was fully dark now and he didn’t know how long he had been fighting and running, near tears from the terror of it. As his head lowered in fatigue, he felt the brush of hair at his nape and was reminded again of the transformation. His hair had lengthened and was held back in a ponytail rather like Gou’s, the tail reaching between his shoulder blades. The white gloves that he had noticed earlier reached his elbows and the boots were knee high, with three-inch heels. The outfit was like a sailor uniform, but oddly backless and – he blushed – a bow over his...chest...and a skirt that he was sure would cover nothing if he were to bend over, or even if the wind blew a little. 

But even as he lifted his hands to look at them, the gloves, the outfit, everything faded away in a soft sputtering glow. His phone was just a phone and he was just a school boy, sitting on the roof of his old elementary school. 

He staggered to his feet and made his way down the opposite fire escape, which actually came down on the same side as the playground – it seemed he’d ran all the way around the school in his panic as he’d tried to get away from the monster. He spotted his school bag lying on the ground by the destroyed slide. As he picked it up, Luna bounded by, twirling rounding his ankles. 

“You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve been saying have you? Nevermind, I suppose that fight took a lot out of you. You did well, you know – I wasn’t sure that you’d manage to defeat the dark agent, but you did.”

“Thanks, Luna-san. I’m glad.” Makoto mumbled his reply back, absent-mindedly. He was so tired, he thought he could probably fall over and sleep right there. But he hauled himself up over the gate and started his walk home, his body automatically recollecting the route he had taken for years of his life.

He didn’t remember the rest of his walk home and barely had the presence of mind to make up some sort of lie when his father greeted him at the door with a worried face.

“Makoto! You’re late getting home – we were getting worried about you. Where have you been?”

“Er...Ahaha, sorry Dad, I should have called. I just lost track of time with everyone. Sorry I worried you.”

“Well, you’re fine, so it’s ok, but try not to forget to at least send us a text next time, ok? But you look kind of tired. Did you eat while you were out with your friends?”

“Ah...yeah, um, I’m feeling pretty sleepy. I think I’m going to turn in early tonight. Goodnight.”

As he walked up the stairs, he could hear his father relating their conversation to his mother and telling his siblings not to disturb him. He just about remembered to change clothes before he collapsed on his bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like! As always, feedback is very much appreciated. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, sorry its been so long since the last update - RL is busy and I'm doing a Masters so I haven't had much time or motivation to write, but I am still alive! And continuing my fics, so they're not abandoned but updates will be slow. This is a bit of a lame chapter, I know, but things will heat up soon enough. I hope you'll stick with me, if you're still reading.

He was warm and comfortable in his cocoon of blankets when his alarm went off at the usual time the next morning, waking him for school. But he still felt so tired, he wanted to sleep more – he’d had a very strange dream. He reached an arm out to hit the snooze button and found himself patting something warm and furry on the way to it. He turned over towards the wall and enjoyed the silence with his eyes closed for a while, until his mind started to function properly.

Wait.

Why was there something warm and furry on his bedside table? Had Ran left one of her toys in his room? 

He poked his head out his nest of blankets, groping for his glasses and came face to face with two brilliantly green, round eyes that were very, very close to his face. 

“Good morning.”

“AAH!!”

He shot up in surprise, or tried to at least and, trapped by his blankets, he only managed to roll off his bed and straight onto the floor, head first, with a loud thunk.

“Makoto? Baby, are you ok?” he heard his mother call from downstairs.

“I’m fine, Mum! Just fell off the bed!”

“OK, be careful, sweetie.”

Makoto wriggled his way out of the cocoon, rubbing his head where he’d bumped it. The cat from last night was sitting in his bed, calmly licking her front paw and washing her ear. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d talked to him. So...it wasn’t a dream?

“You’re real?” He kept his voice low and the cat looked at him. He got the impression that if he were looking at a human face, there would be a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. I thought we’d already covered this. Would you like me to go over it again?”

“So last night really happened? I really fought some kind of alien-monster thing?”

“Yes. Yes, you did. Not the best way you could have, but there’s always room to improve.”

“And I really turned into, well, the transformation – it made me into....”

“...Yes...I’m afraid I have no explanation as to why that, er, happened...but it would seem that that is the, er, form in which your magical powers manifest.”

Makoto groaned, flushing red, and sunk to the floor, covering his head as he pressed his heated face into his mattress. This was so ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous. He didn’t know how to deal with this – especially when he was so tired. 

“Well, yes, that was what I was trying to tell you last night, but you were dozing off even as you were walking back home. You used your emotions to fuel your power, didn’t you? And while that’s certainly more direct, it’s also inefficient. That’s why you need to calm your mind and focus – that way, you don’t waste a lot of energy the way you did last night. You’ll have to practice and work on that.”

“Am I going to have to fight a lot more of those monsters, Luna-san?”

“Many more, I’m afraid. The agent you fought yesterday was small-fry. I’ve been trying to get intelligence on the leader of this force, but it’s been rather difficult. If we can find out who is behind it all and defeat them, then – ”

Makoto’s alarm went off for the second time, the snooze period ending. He switched it off, absent-mindedly, his tired mind trying to keep pace with Luna. 

“ – we may be able to stop this whole thing. We haven’t been able to figure out what their endgame is, as of yet, so we will need to be vigilant for clues. Hopefully, our next encounter with the enemy’s agents will give us more information. From what intelligence I have been able to gather so far, we know that the dark agents have been sent into the field to collect life energy in rather large amounts. What we don’t know yet is why – what do they plan to use it for. But we have to stop them either way – draining a person, or any living being, of their life force kills them. And we can’t allow that.”

A chill swept over Makoto at the thought that that was what could have happened to Ren and Ran if he hadn’t stopped that monster. But it occurred to him then that stopping the monster had meant killing it. He’d never killed anything before and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. He wondered if it still counted as murder, because it had been a monster and not a human. The thought disturbed him a little. 

“Luna-san, last night...what I did...it was killing, wasn’t it?”

Luna seemed to pause at his words, as if she hadn’t considered it that way. But his next words comforted him a little. “Well, not really, Makoto. You have to understand, that those minions were made into monsters by their master, who has powerful dark magic. And your powers lie in purification. There were two ways your actions could have gone last night – the first is what happened, in that the creature disappeared entirely. That is because that agent was formed whole, through dark powers and solely for the purpose of his mission. But in some circumstances, a dark magician can change the form of another being by possessing them with darkness and controlling them –”

“Eh?! What? That could have been an innocent person?! Just a victim of the bad guy?! I didn’t even think of that at the time, that’s terrible, what if I’d hurt someone –”

“No, calm down, Makoto. You wouldn’t have hurt them. As I was saying, your powers would have purified the darkness out of them and they would have been left unharmed, as they originally were. Well, being purified in such a way can be a rather intense experience, so you might find them unconscious, but otherwise, none the worse for wear.”

“Oh. Good.” Makoto sighed in relief. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He looked up to see Luna eyeing him. 

“While we’re on the subject of your powers, I think you would benefit from some training to better control them. Your powers can be rather versatile when harnessed properly you know...”

Just then, his mother’s voice called up the stairs. “Makoto? Have you finished getting dressed, sweetheart? Breakfast is hot, but it won’t stay that way much longer.” 

“Ah, sorry, Luna-san. I have to get ready for school.”

“Very well, we will speak of this later – I shall be waiting for you, after school.” 

“I have swimming practice.”

“...Is there any chance you can miss it?”

“...I’m the captain of the team...and there are only four of us....”

“I see. I suppose it might be suspicious...after that, then. In the meanwhile, I shall try to gather more intelligence.” She hopped through his open window, saving him from wondering about how she had got into his room in the first place. He stared after her for a few moments and then shook his head at the bizarreness of the situation – he was talking to a cat, about monsters and magic, of all things. He was meant to be a normal high-school boy. And speaking of school – he had to get ready.

He went through his usual morning routine and, as he walked down the stairs pulling on his school blazer, he saw his brother and sister sitting at the dining table, still unchanged from their nightclothes.

“Ren! Ran! Why haven’t you changed? You’re going to be late for school!” He couldn’t help but start fussing over them.

“We haven’t got school today. Its closed.”

“Eh? Was there a notice?”

“Mm, yes, it was on the local news this morning.” His mother put a breakfast plate on the table for him and made him sit down. “It seems that some vandals broke into school last night and started wrecking everything outside. They didn’t get into the school itself, it seems, but you should have seen the pictures they showed of the playground and one of the fire escapes. Isn’t it awful, dear?”

“...That happened...ah, yeah, that’s awful....” he laughed nervously. For Makoto, this was like the last piece of proof he needed to know that last night was real and he wasn’t going crazy. He was aware that he was sitting there with his jaw dropped open, but his mother seemed to take it as honest shock that something like that could happen in a quiet place like Iwatobi. 

“And then we got a call this morning – the principal sent around a message that the school would be closed and the police are investigating. Who could have done such a thing? And here, of all places – it’s unheard of.”

The twins, on the other hand, seemed to feel that a day off school was a cause for celebration and were absolutely unperturbed. Makoto ate his food with his eyes lowered, resolutely avoiding eye-contact and gathered his things to leave for school. And it was a testament to how late he was running that Haru was already out of his house, locking the front door and waiting for him. 

“Ah, sorry I’m late, Haru. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”

“Hn, its fine, I just came out. What kept you?”

“I, ah, got up late, ehehe. Slept right through my alarm.”

Haru nodded, and because he had nothing to add, they walked down the street in companionable silence. Makoto fiddled with the strap of his bag as he walked and thought about telling Haru what had happened to him last. But it sounded so absurd, even he had trouble believing it. And in the bright light of morning, it was already starting to feel like a dream, even if he had talked to Luna when he woke up. Besides, he wouldn’t have even known how to start explaining it anyway without sounding delirious. He tossed the idea aside, figuring that he could tell Haru later, when he had a better idea of what was going on and how to broach the subject. Though, maybe it was better if he didn’t say anything, at the very least because it would make him sound crazy. He would have to ask Luna when he saw her later.   
Makoto was still pondering this as they came out of the quieter residential streets, rounding the corner onto a busier part nearer the school gates, his eyes lazily roving over the morning bustle when he caught the gaze of a man in a large coat. It wasn’t anyone he recognised particularly nor did the man look particularly out of place, leaning against a stall across the street. But there was a strange feeling in the air as their eyes locked and he found himself noticing that the man’s eyes were incredibly dark. Dark and deep, like a black hole that sucked in the light around it and trapped it, and Makoto found that he couldn’t look away, for some reason, and hadn’t noticed that he’d stopped walking as the man gave him a long look. 

“Makoto?”

The sound of Haru’s voice pulled him out of it and he turned to see his friend tilting his head at him, questioningly. It was then that he noticed he was standing still and when he looked back across the street, the man was no longer there. Not knowing quite what to make of it, Makoto shrugged and carried on walking.

“Ah, sorry, Haru. I just thought I saw something strange that’s all. But it’s nothing after all.”

As he walked through the gates of the school, the odd moment was quickly forgotten as he was absorbed into the daily routine of a second-year high-school student, who also happened to be captain of the swimming club and the nagging best friend of a boy who spent lessons daydreaming about swimming instead of paying attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter - the first training session with Luna and, perhaps, a glimse at our Big Bad. 
> 
> As always, feedback is very much appreciated and keeps me going :)

**Author's Note:**

> Someone really needs to get me away from the that meme, because I keep finding these prompts. Free! is eating my soul. Anywho, as always - feedback is very much appreciated. Hope you like this!


End file.
